Method of manufacturing weldless stud-link ship-cable shot



W. B; COW LES.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING WELDLESS STUD LINK SHIP CABLE SHOT; APPLICATION FILED JULY 15. 1918;

Lwhwm Patented 00. 10,1922;

Patented ct. id, id,

ETHOD F. MANUFdCT'UlRING WELDLESS STUD-LINK SHIP-CABLE @HQT.

application tiled July 15,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM B. Cownns, a citizen of the United States residing at Philadelphia, in the county of lPhiladelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Method of Manufacturing Weldless Studliink Ship-Cable Shot; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and inexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of weldless chain '15 cable, and it relates more especially to an improved method by means of which a weldless' chain cable shot may be manufactured from a single integral bar of metal.

According to my invention the billet of metal is rolled into a bar that is substantially cruciform in cross section, with the outer edges of the cross rounded. This bar is then passed between die rolls where it is formed roughly into the shape of the chain, but with extruded exterior fins and lumps of extruded metal attached thereto, and with interior webs, said webs and fins forming with the links a rigid bar. From this bar the outer fins with the lumps of metal are ac trimmed, and at the same time a large portion of the webs is cut away by suitable cutting or punching mechanism, which not being a part of my resent inventiori will not be described herein. When the internal web is punched out, the stud is left in situ as an integralpart of the link.

Incident to this process of trimming and punching, small portions of the web are left which will be sufficient to retain in the bar enough rigidity so that it may be handled as a bar until the connecting portions of the web are broken, when the bar becomes a chain, and each link of chain so formed is known as a chain shot.

After these small portions are broken and the bar becomes a chain, the bearings of said chain comprising the rough surface on the interior of the ends of the links, are milled or otherwise smoothed off so as to give a smooth bearing surface for the adacent links of the chain.

- At one end of each chain shot a standard 191d. Serial No. atlfifldd.

shackle is attached, which may be threaded into the last link ,of the shot by removing the stud from the link, inserting the shackle and then re-i'nserting the stud .in the link. :lhls removal of the stud may be conveniently edected bytorchin out with an oxyacetylenepencil flame, t en the shackle is threaded 1n, the pin of course being removed,

and then the stud may be re-inserted and welded backin place by the use of the same torch. It will be obvious that for the ox acetylene torch any electric process may e adopted, or the stud may be cut out mechanically and reinserted mechanically.

It will be seen that all of the links of the shot are of identical construction, being made in identical diesout of the bar of homogeneous metal, the stud of each link being rolled out integral therewith, except the stud of the last link which is also rolled out integral with said link but is subsequently removed for the insertion of the shackle and is then restored to its initial position, preferabl by welding.

ln the process of rolling the chain shot, the dies are so formed that the metal is thickened, or loaded, at each end of the individual links, whereby greater strength is secured, and improved wearing quality is obtained.

My invention will be more 'fully .understood after reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows the bar in cross section on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, after it has been rolled into the chain, with the fins and Webs and lumps of extruded metal attached, the four die rolls being indicated in dotted lines and the punchin tool for removing the portions of the we between the ends of the links being also shown in dotted lines.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the bar after it has been rolled into the chain form and before any of the finishing processes has-been started.

Figure 2 shows a portion of the same bar as it is being fed to the trimming dies, and indicates also in dotted lines the punches for punching out the webs between the ends of the links.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the end link of the shot, showing the shackle attached thereto, with 'the pin of the shackle removed.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the device shown in Fig. 3, but with an additional link of the chain shown.

Figure 5 is anenlarged view of the end link of the chain shot, showing the method of entering the e e of the shackle; and

Figure6 is a iagr'ammatic view showm in shaded lines the enlargement or loading of the two ends of the link.

Like parts are indicated by similar reference symbols throughout the several views.

A represents the bar out of which the links a are formed. These links are roll forged out of the bar, the adjacent links being at right angles to each other as shown in Fig. 1, where B, B, B and B shown in dotted lines, indicate the four die rolls used in forming the links.

The apparatus for accomplishlng the rolling of the links from the bar is illustrated, described and claimed in my co-pending application, filed July 15, 1918, Serial No. 245,057, and entitled Die rolling mill for the manufacture of weldless chain, and will not be further described herein.

The bar is rolled hot as is customary in rolling or forging steel, and when the rolling has been completed the bar'so rolled 1s annealed in the usual way, whereby all the links are uniformly heat treated and, being made out of a homogeneous bar, there will be practically uniform strength for all the links, and this uniform strength of the individual links is maintained when the chain is completed, there being no other heat treatment required for any of the subsequent operations.

When the bar. has been rolled between the die rolls into the form shown in Fig. 2, there is left in the interior of the links a web a, and a stud (1 while on the exterior of the links there is left oppositely disposed fins a with extruded masses of metal a.

The bar so roll forged, as illustrated in Fig. 2, has the fins a and extruded metal portions a trimmed off by the trimmin fdies C and C, and the webs are perforate between the ends of the links and the stud by horseshoe-shaped trimming dies D and D, as shown at the left of Fig. 2.

After the trimming operation has been perfected by means of the dies C and C and D and D, the web located betweenthe ends of the links is perforated by the punches E and E shown to the right of Fig. 2, and one of which also is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1'. The means for operating these punches C, C, D, D and E, E are illustrated, described and claimed in my coending application, filed July 20, 1918, erial N 0. 245926, and entitled Automatic trimming press for manufacturing weldlessmeans of the small ribs a", which constitute the remaining sections of the web not cut away by the punches, as hereinbefore de-- scribed. These small ribs still maintain the bar as a ri id unit, so that itmay be handled as suc As soon as the complete bar has been run through the trimmin press, the remaining ribs a are broken, an the links then become free to move relative to each other, and what was formerly a bar now becomes a chain. This chain so formed will have its links sufficiently finished exteriorly to be ready for use, but where the web portions a" were broken away, these fractures will be irregular and it will be necessary to machine the roughened portions on the interior of the links, which maybe done in any convenient way, so that there may be a smooth bearing between theadjacent links of the chain.

I order to strengthen the ends of the individual links, as hereinbefore described, the dies are so' constructed that the said ends will be rolled thicker or loaded, as shown at a in Fig. 6.

It is important in the manufacture to have this loading placed on the sides of the link ends, and not on the iimer and outer surfaces of the link ends, in order to leave as much space and clearance as possible for trimming cutters and punches on the inside of the link.

In the method herein described I have shown an integral bar converted into a single shot of weldless chain. In order to attach this shot to the adj acent shot of the weldless chain cable a connecting link or shackle of some kind is necessary, and for this purpose I prefer to use a standard shackle which is well known in this art. Such a shackle F is in the form of a U, as shown in Fig. 4, and provided with enlarged ends 7 provided with pear-shaped holes f to receive the shackle pin G, which is rovided with the .headHg and is held in pi pin ace by the cotter .the stud at a oint a some distance from the body of the ink, the stud being cut at the end of the shoulder a", as shown in Fig. 5. The heat of the oxy-acetylene torch, being extremely local in its application, will cut quickly through the stud, but without heating the body of the link to any such temperature as would in any way afiect' its previously heat treated condition.

After the stud is removed, the shackle is inserted by placing one of the enlarged ends 7 in the enlarged opening in the end link, and the shackle is then turnedthrough a right angle to the position shown in Fig. 3, and the stud is returned to its initial pos ition and is welded in place in any convenient way, preferably by building up with the oxy-acetylene torch, as is well known in the art.

I have thus described the conversion of a single homogeneous, cruciform bar into. a shot of chain cable, and the attaching to this shot of the shackle, which shackle connects the shot of cable to the adjacent shot or to the anchor, as is well known in the art.

It will be seen that I provide a chain, all of the links of which are of practically uniform shape and strength, and. therefore there is practically no weakest-link in said chain. Moreover, I effect the manufacture of this chain by a series of mechanism and power work operations and there is very little hand work required. Thus, the chain ma be manufactured in large quantities, an at rapid rate and low cost.

It will be obvious that various modifications might be made in the herein described construction and inthe combination and arrangement of invention. v

Having thusdescribed my invention what 'ad 'acent links, leavin arts which could be used without departing from the spirit of my I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. The method of manufacturing single chain-cable shots from a single billet, which consists in rolling the billet into a bar of cruciform cross section and of somewhat less length than the chain shot to be formed, passing this 'bar while hot between quadrantally disposed die rolls thereby shaping the bar roughly into the form of links connected together by internal webs and external fins, each link having its own stud integral therewith, trimming off the fins exterior toeach link, and punching out those portions of the webs between the stud of said link and the outer ends' of the adjacent links, also punching out the larger part of the remaining web between the inner ends of small ribs of the we to maintain the esired rigidity in the bar, and finally breaking said ribs converting the bar into-achain, substantially as described.

2. The-method of temporarilyremoving and replacing a stud from a link of chaincable without impairing the previous heat treatment of said link, which consists in cutting the stud from the link by means of an oxy-acetylene torch at such distance from the sides of the link as not to affect the previous heat .reatrnent thereof, and then subsequently restoring the-stud to the initial position and welding the same in place, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature.

WILLIAM BARNUM cownns. 

